Foods which have been broiled or cooked, especially over an open flame, have a unique and popular flavor. Foods prepared by broiling are available in restaurants, and a variety of cooking appliances have been available for years to enable persons to prepare broiled foods at home. These appliances range from grills built into kitchens cabinets in the kitchen to gas-fired or electric or charcoal grills for use outdoors.
One very popular dish that is prepared by broiling is shishkabob. This dish typically comprises alternating pieces of meat, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, carrots, etc. These pieces of food are impaled by an elongate skewer which holds the pieces of food in close proximity to one another for cooking. In the past, these pieces of food were prepared in appropriate bite size chunks and held in one hand while a sharpened skewer was inserted through the food. This technique is not only time-consuming but can be unsanitary and is potentially dangerous to the person loading the food onto the skewer, particularly when impaling pieces of meat, since the resistance encountered may lead to stabbing the skewer into the hand holding the piece of meat. In addition, the first and subsequent pieces of food impaled on the skewer are pushed along the skewer by later pieces of food impaled on the skewer. The pieces of food on a loaded skewer are thus all pressed tightly against one another, and the resultant uneven exposure to heat causes non-uniform cooking of the pieces of food.
A variety of devices have been developed in the prior art for holding pieces of food to be loaded onto skewers, including apparatus which enables multiple skewers to be simultaneously loaded. Many of these prior art devices comprise top and bottom housing portions which are closed onto the food, gripping it and squeezing the food into undulating strips for being impaled by a skewer. These devices are especially adapted for skewering and cooking elongated strips of meat or the like. However, applicant is not aware of any prior art device which is capable of holding a plurality of different types of food in different compartments so that they can be impaled by a skewer that will then hold the pieces of food in spaced relationship on the skewer for cooking. Neither is applicant aware of any prior art device for loading food onto skewers, which can also be used to marinate or season the food.
Accordingly, there is need for a simple and economical device constructed to hold individual pieces of different types of food for impaling them with a skewer for subsequent cooking. Especially desirable would be such a device which is capable of holding or being adapted to hold different size pieces of food and which is arranged to accommodate and guide different types and sizes of skewers. Also desirable would be such a device which has means for marinating or seasoning the food.